Man, I have SO MANY photos from this place, but I’ve hardly processed any of them. This is one that I worked on recently. They are actually very difficult to process, even in HDR, because of the brightness of the sky. I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out, but I think I can do better on future ones.
The trek to Burning Man is always an adventure. Before we had our own RV that we store in Reno, I would rent an RV from somewhere around the country and drive in. I think during that week, there are like 50,000 RVs rented and it’s usually cheaper to get them somewhere else and make the journey. I plan it all out so there are some cool photo stops along the way. This one is from Sedona, Arizona.
If you’re a Passport Member then today you’ll get a little tour of what I’ve learned about NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens). You can think of them like bitcoin but for digital art. Strange, right? I’ll break it down for you!
I’ll show you two different marketplaces and a little bit about the way NFTs work. It’s a strange world we live in, and it just got stranger! But maybe also a bit more awesome!
As cheesy as it is, Disney World offers all kinds of great photo opportunities. I guess they are still going strong in the middle of Covid, but I haven’t been there in a few years. One of my best recommendations for a photographer is to go to Epcot and take your time taking photos, well into the night. Even after they close, the security is very nice and they let you take as many photos as you like.
Man, I must say… I don’t really want to jump the Sony ship to get on the Fuji ship, but this new camera looks pretty dang sweet!
It was one of the final stops on our worldwide tour, and New York City was a great place to have some final parties. I think this was the night before I headed out to the Mayan Warrior in Brooklyn to have one of those raves that went till about 3 AM. What a good time, though… Those guys always know how to bring the party.
No, this is not product placement for the Google phone! I just love this thing so much and I think it’s fun to share photos with it. It’s not as awesome as my Sony, but, honestly, 99% of the general public who knows nothing about cameras would see very little difference, if any.
There aren’t many bad photos of the Florida coastline… and when the clouds come in and get stormy, everything gets a touch more dramatic. There’s a part of me that wants to be in a Florida hurricane, but I don’t know why… That’s like saying there’s a part of me that wants to be part of the Black Death/Plague. And, maybe there kinda is. Maybe that’s what the Coronavirus is like… yep, I think of the Florida coastline, and then I think of Coronavirus.
This is the amazing place where we had the Dallas Photo Walk! Man, I was so tired that morning; I almost didn’t make it. We had just driven in from New Orleans where we partied a little too hard… then slept on the bus all the way to Dallas. We woke up, and there was a Rolls Royce Ghost outside the bus that was sent by the Ritz-Carlton to ferry us over to their location. The GM was there and everything. We stumbled out of bed and got dressed, but I tell ya what – the whole thing was VERY confusing, but awesome!
Here’s one of the last cruises I took before the whole pandemic thang. That’s a view of Miami from the water just as we left. It was kind of funny… this cruise was with the Summit people, which are a lot like the TED people. In other words, lots of politically active and passionate people mostly on the left. Anyway, on the night we left, Trump got elected… so then everyone on the boat was just so upset and crying for days and days… it was a wild scene!
I’ve been using Luminar for a while now, along with Aurora HDR, as my main software for processing images. It’s just so powerful and feature packed which makes editing images even more fun than normal. Recently I got hold of the new Luminar AI which replaces Luminar 4 and it’s great. There is a bunch of AI based stuff on the front end which helps you select templates (think presets) which is great for beginners or to inspire some ideas for processing. For those of us who want to get hands on that is still an option and there are a bunch of new sliders to play around with. Check out the vid below where I process a landscape image and if you’re interested in grabbing the software you can do so here. 🙂
I can see why Florida has a huge appeal to people who are the beachy sorts. I don’t actually think I am the beachy sort… I’m more the mountainy sort. But I’d do that split about 70/30. I certainly don’t hate the beach and I’ve been having a great time exploring all the beaches on the North Island of NZ. Nothing against Florida or anything, but I think I like the beaches here a bit more because they are so remote you hardly see anyone else… makes it easy for a fun skinny dip or two.
Check out the new podcast called “Molecules I’ve Ingested” at https://podcasts.treyratcliff.com/ ! We’ve actually recorded the first two episodes already… I got this idea from my friend Hanna in Scotland because she thought I had hilarious stories about trying different drugs, so I decided to turn it into a full podcast. Each episode is a different molecule. I teamed up with my friend and neighbor across the street, Harriett McDonald (who is also a voice actress) to be the storytellee. Is that a word? Not sure… either way, she’s awesome because she is straight as an arrow and more conservative than Pat Buchanan, so she asks all the obvious questions and rightly calls me out for being a moron. Anyway, each episode is focused on a different molecule and, beyond the wild stories, they are quite educational! So, yeah, Episode 1 is called Amazonian Giant Monkey Frog Poison aka The Cambo Ceremony and Episode 2 is Acid at Burning Man and the Asian Stalker – Enjoy and tell your friends! 🙂 I’m working on Episode 3 now… I think it’s gonna be called “Full Death Experience – Imbibing the Crystalized Poison of the Sonoran Desert Toad in the form of 5MEO-DMT.” Yeah, it’s kind of a long title, but that’s just what the master wordsmith ordered.
I went to DC last year to meet with my friends at the Ritz-Carlton (that’s where they are based). I got there a day early in the middle of a dramatic blizzard. I spent a few hours walking around and just taking photos with my Pixel phone… here is one of my favorites!
